Record Breaking Heat

No photos, just a short bit of information:

As of today we've had 52 days over 90F here in Cincinnati. Yesterday we broke the record that was set back in 1953, and it looks like we'll continue to build on the new record the rest of this week.

I don't feel too bad though because I was able to talk to our son yesterday and it has finally cooled down to just over 100F in Kuwait! It's been up over 120F, actual temperature, most of the summer!

The Dog Days of Summer?

I guess these must be the Kitty days of fall then!

Sorry, I took a couple of weeks off blogging. Work has been extremely busy, and so has our home life. There's been so many nights that I said to Lightnin' that I really need to blog, but the bed called out to me louder than my inner voice.

If you look down to the post just prior to this one you can sort of catch up with the more interesting things that have happened.

Also please wish GGL a speedy recovery! For those of you who don't know GGL stands for: Great Grandpa Lightnin' (Lightnin's Father). He went into the hospital this past Saturday and is getting ready for surgery. We should know more later this week!

24 Years, and We're Still Together!

Hard to believe that 24 years ago, yesterday, Lightnin' and I got hitched! I know there's several of you out there that thought that there was no way this relationship was going to last. Well it not only lasted, it's flourishing! So there! ;-)

So what do you do to celebrate 24 years? Let's see, 25 is silver and 50 is gold, I guess 24 is beer! Yep, we had a few friends over and brewed a double batch (10gal) of an Irish Red Ale. It was the first beer that I ever brewed, and this was the first time I've brewed since my surgery this past fall.

I've got a few pics to share from the brewing, and then I'll try to catch you up on everything that's happened in the past couple of weeks, we've been busy!

Here's the basic procedure:

The grains have already Mashed to convert the starch of the malted barley to sugars. This part of the operation is called the Sparge, where I'm rinsing the sugars off of the spent grain.

For the double batch I decided to go 1/2 grain and 1/2 extract, so here we are adding the dried malt extract.

Followed by the malt extract syrup.

Then come the hops, added in 3 stages: at Boiling (for bitterness), with about 15min remaining in the boil (for flavor), and after the boil (for aroma).

After that you cool the wort down (wort is the term for the sugary liquid).

Pitch the yeast, and in about 2 weeks you've got beer!

Here's what it looks like today, in full fermentation.

Looking back a couple of weeks what all has happened....... let's see........Oh I remember:

My friend Sir Thomas and I fried up 65lbs of chicken for his Daughter's friend's wedding rehearsal. It was hot, rainy, messy, and danged if we didn't forget to bring the camera! Bummer! The chicken came out great though, and we satisfied the hungry crowd.

Then there was Paella Night (pronounced: Pie-A-ah)! Lightnin' out did herself here, and we have photos:

Here's the Risotto (rice) just being added, and you can see the rest of the ingredients in the background (Chicken, Chorizo, scallops, Saffron, Smokey Paprika, Chicken stock, etc.)

Here's the finished product, and it went very well with the "Dancing Bull" Cabernet Sauvignon.

So did the chocolate cake for dessert.

Here's to the next 24 Sweetie!

End of Summer Part 2: One More Road Trip

It's not unusual at all to have groups of motorcycles buzzing by out where we live, especially when the weather is nice, and this past Saturday it was perfect! So I met up with a few friends who were looking for any excuse to get out on the road one last day of summer, much like I was myself. Unfortunately Lightnin was at home with a summertime cold, which she was happy to share with me (I returned to work with it this morning).

Here's the road crew

Here's their transportation of choice, I of course had the little four wheeled two-seater

We headed down south about 45 minutes from here to a little town along the Ohio River named Rabbit Hash, Kentucky. There was a festival going on with misic (live bluegrass of course) and a historic vehicle show.

These guy's were good!

Just follow the steps down the hill to the river and catch the ferry across to Rising Sun, Indiana.

This was an old grist mill, powered by this hit-n-miss engine. You can see the old hollowed out tree that was once used for grain storage.

Just in case you're wondering, this is probably how beer got it's start. Just think about what would have happened to the grain if a bit of rain water got into the bin during this time of year, a bit of a fermentation gone wild!

And this was the character that was selling the corn meal, of course he sold a bag of it to me!

With the road behind us, we stopped to wet our whistles before heading on home.








Summer might be over, but Autumn usually provides some good rag top weather too!

End of Summer Part 1: Back to School

This past week our oldest son Matthew stopped by to visit on his way to the Big Apple. He's been accepted into the Master's program at Christie's (yep the famous auction house) where he'll be studying Modern Art, "Connoisseurship" and the history of the art market. He was one of only 30 some students admitted into the program this year.

He was moving to New York and was just passing through in the U-Haul (which I neglected to get a photo of!). We took him out for dinner where we met up with a few of his friends for a small celebration before he headed out on the road and back to school the following day.